The quality of China's environment improved last year, but the country is confronted with more difficulties in making further progress, said Huang Runqiu, Minister of Ecology and Environment. Following continuous decreases for almost 10 consecutive years, the concentration of PM2.5 particulate matter in China declined to below 30 micrograms per cubic meter last year, he reported to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC). The average PM2.5 density in major cities across the country stood at 29 mcg/cubic m last year, down 3.3% year-on-year. The proportion of days with heavy air pollution dropped to 0.9%, compared with 1.3% in 2021. “It’s the first time that the proportion decreased to below 1%,” he said. The achievement was made thanks to a series of measures from various government bodies. The Ministry dispatched 10 groups of officials and experts to support air pollution control work in key regions last year to help solve over 32,000 environmental issues.
Transformation for ultra-low emissions was completed for 210 million metric tons of crude steel production capacity in 2022. The output and sales of new energy vehicles both increased by over 90% last year. Continuous improvement has also been registered in the quality of surface water and the marine environment, as well as in the condition of the country’s ecosystems, Minister Huang reported. About 87.9% of surface water across the country was categorized as Grade I to Grade III in 2022, compared with 84.9% in 2021, he said. Following a decrease of 0.5 percentage points, the proportion of surface water with Grade V reached 0.7%. China has a six-tier quality system for surface water, with below Grade V the worst.
Huang stressed, however, that China faces an arduous task to further promote environmental protection, saying, “the country still needs to make prolonged, painstaking efforts to promote the construction of a ‘Beautiful China’.” Almost one-third of cities across the country failed to see their air quality reach the national standard in 2022. “Unfavorable meteorological conditions still have great effects on their air quality,” he said. On average, cities at the prefecture level and above registered fairly good air quality – considered to be below 100 on a 0-500 air quality index scale – on 86.5% of days last year, compared with 87.5% in 2021, he said. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei province integrated cluster, the Yangtze River Basin and the Fenhe-Weihe Plain saw the proportion of such days drop by 0.5, 3.7 and 5 percentage points, respectively, he said. Heavy air pollution still occasionally occurs in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei province cluster and the Fenhe-Weihe Plain in autumn and winter, the China Daily reports.
